The sects of Murjea

The Murjea sect became widespread with the aid of the Umayyad dynasty and the number of its followers increased, but it faced some amount of conflict and divided into a few sects.

          These sects had differences between them on grounds of faith but the most appropriate among them which suited the Umayyad rulers and the likes of them, was the Karamiyya sect.

          The Karamiyya sect considered that, for a muslim, neither acting upon the commands of religion is necessary, nor having inner faith on it. As per this, a Muslim could both perform the actions of the Jews and Christians and could also not have inner faith in Islam, and the verbal acceptance of the Islamic commands was enough for a person to remain a Muslim; he can oppose them with his heart and can also act and behave against his own verbal claims. It is evident that being such a Muslim was absolutely appropriate for the Umayyad rulers.

          Murjea had other sects as well but it is possible that the reason behind their division could be to prevent the power of Murjea from being centralized. It is clear that if power is centralized in the hands of a single group, and is not divided into different groups and sects, it is possible that this group becomes a threat to the ruling government. Hence, division in every group is in favor of the rulers.

          In the book ‘Shia dar Barabar e Motazela’, the author states:

‘Abul Hasan Ash’ari has mentioned twelve sects of Murjea and all of them have a common belief that ‘Imaan’ comprises of faith and certainty, and actions are outside the boundaries of its reality; in this regard, the Karamiyya sect, which is the follower of Muhammad bin Karam, has opposed them. They are of the belief that ‘Imaan’ only comprises of verbal acceptance and inner agreement is not necessary, and as per this rule, they say that ‘those hypocrites who lived during the life of the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) were believers even though they did not have inner faith! Likewise, they consider infidelity as verbal denial only.[1]

          Although the followers of ‘Irjaa’ have been divided into five sects as per the book ‘At’ Tabseer’ written by Isfarayini, their division is as follows:

1. The Yunusiyya sect, the followers of Yunus bin Awn. They believe that ‘Imaan’ is comprised of heart and verbal acceptance and its reality is the cognition of the Almighty God, and the acceptance of the Prophets and their books.
2. The Ghassaniya sect. They were the followers of Ghassan e Murjei and were of the belief that ‘Imaan’ is only the acceptance of God’s existence and His love, but it has the tendency of increasing and decreasing.
3. The Thanawiyya sect who were the followers of Abu Ma’aaz who was of the belief that ‘Imaan’ is something that protects you from infidelity.
4. The Thaubaniyya sect, the followers of Abu Thauban e Murjei. In addition to the acceptance of God’s existence and His Prophets, they had increased the acceptance of all the intellectual compulsion, all that is considered correct as per the intellect was considered amongst the pillars of ‘Imaan’ or faith.
5.  The Murisiyya sect, the followers of Bashir e Murisi. In addition to the aforementioned beliefs, they believed on the creation of Qur’an.

From the abovementioned details, we can conclude that Murjea had a mutual agreement on the belief that actions are not a part of ‘Imaan’. They tried in this manner to narrow and specify the meaning of ‘Imaan’ in opposition to Khawarij, because Khawarij considered all their enemies including the committers of greater sins as infidels and placed them at one side and all the other Muslims at the other.

          Likewise, it was also for the stand against Motazela, as the Motazela sect used to consider actions as a pillar of ‘Imaan’, and were of the belief that the sinners will dwell in Hellfire eternally.

After the emergence of the notions of Murjea against Khawarij, who had stored their own ‘Imaan’ with themselves, and against Motazela, who had added the process of acting upon the principles along with the belief of verbal agreement, their notions faced changes and amendments later on including the thoughts that were presented at that time; like the other notions which appear in the forms of ideologies in the beginning, thereafter, the more they are discussed and as time passes on, more expansion and amendments occur, especially as we mentioned, the notions of Murjea were basically in the interest of the rulers and they were used in anyway as an aid for the propagation, promotion and orientation of their benefits.

Therefore, some of them claimed that how much ever a person does commit sins and performs that which is forbidden, he will not be punished in the Hell unless he has inner and verbal faith in God and His Prophets.’[2]